Webberley focuses on immediate task

CLARENCE coach Jeromey Webberley believes the Roos cannot afford to focus their attention on next weekend’s showdown with premier Glenorchy, instead calling for more improvement in a crucial away meeting with Launceston on Sunday.

The Roos travel to Windsor Park to tackle the Blues fresh off a 3-0 start to the season, including a 122-57 win over Devonport on the North-West Coast last weekend.

And playing coach Webberley said while there was an important month of football ahead for his side, including a meeting with the Pies at KGV next Saturday, their attention was on further improvement against Launceston.

“We’ve obviously got a pretty important month of footy ahead and a major challenge this week in Launceston,” he said.

“I don’t think we can afford to [focus on Glenorchy]. Although we’re 3-0 and the results are saying we’re going quite well, we still think there are some major deficiencies in our game plan.

“We probably haven’t been as polished finding the easy option inside 50. We’ve been bombing the ball in a little bit and it’s well documented we don’t have a strong contested mark in our forward group, so we need to tidy that up. Our stoppage work has been a little bit hit-and-miss.”

Webberley said he regarded Launceston, which is 3-1, as a topthree team and believed the game would be won with contested ball usage on a small Windsor Park field .

“I think their midfield group is probably the deepest we’ve played by far and probably one of the deepest in the competition,” he said.

“We will have a direct match-up on [playing coach Sam Lonergan] when he’s up forward, but when he’s on ball, we’ll see in the first quarter how he’s going.”

Webberley said midfielder Jackson O’Brien would remain out with a quad injury but should be fit for Glenorchy next week. For Launceston, Nathan O’Donoghue returns to the lineup.

Meanwhile, the Hobart City Demons will travel to play winless Lauderdale tomorrow fresh off its first win of the year and with captain Hugh Williams a confirmed starter.

The defender was sidelined for the first four games because of a hamstring tear and Demons coach Kane Richter said it would be handy to have Williams back.

“Hugh missing the last four weeks has left a real dent in our backline, but also in terms of his leadership and the way he goes about his footy,” Richter said.

The undefeated Glenorchy travels on Sunday to Burnie, which has playing coach Clint Proctor back but loses suspended captain Nick McKenna.

And Devonport welcomes North Launceston to the NorthWest tomorrow.